climb a hill and sit there with Binos... much easier....

^^^^^^
This. However, I've never baited brown bears before, but if you have suitable terrain I would just glass for them.
If you do bait for them please remove your barrel and other stuff after you're finished with your hunt.

For those of you who love "spot and stalk" - I do too. Love the alpine. Love the challenge. Love spending the whole day, or two, or three. Thing is, I am almost always alone. And, I do plan to take the whole bear. The meat. The hide. The skull. I won't leave the meat just because some say it's no good. I will find out for myself. As in, never had a "fishy black bear" and I've shot plenty eating rotten salmon. I'm not saying YOU haven't. I'm saying I haven't. So, I'm gonna give the Brown Bear a whirl and find out for myself.

In many cases, I know the glassing and spot and stalk is going to be remote - way the heck out in the boonies. Thus, I could use a good partner or two. I got pals coming up from the lower 48 for the fall, but not the spring. That is my only reluctance with the spot and stalk. But if I can get a few days, I might just give it a try.

WH, I'd love to hear about those blacks from MN going 800#.
Never heard of one.

B&B - not sure how old you are, but for me, that would be over a long, long span of time. I'm 53. Going on many years (decades) of reading about such things - ever since I could read basically. The records are there, if you look. Probably some obese, dump bears. Last one I remember was on the edge of the bear refuge up by Ely, I think. It was controversial because it was being fed, and hanging out at the refuge, but going off the refuge, and thus, hunt able. The bear was there a long time. And, it had a name! So, as you can imagine, people squawked when it was harvested. Another big bear, somewhere up on the north shore along Lake Superior - but this could be a decade ago, or more. Anything 6-800 pounds is crazy big! I feel amazing if I can get one close to 400# here in AK.

I have a friend who personally shot one well up over 600# if I remember correctly. I went to see it at the taxidermist before it was skinned out. Like I said above, many Minnesotans will go through great lengths to bring in their whole bear, and get it weighed. This one was from the 1980's. I will see if my pal can get me the picture. It was so impressive. What I think I remember, is that it was in the back of a Toyota Pickup, and the bear was so thick that the hips stuck out above the top of the bed, and the bear took up the vast majority of the bed. I think that is the biggest black I have ever seen.

"According to the North American Bear Center in Ely, Minnesota, the heaviest black bear reliably weighed was an 880-pound 10-year-old male killed in Craven County, North Carolina, in November 1998. Not far behind was an 876-pound 12-year-old male from St. Louis County, Minnesota, killed in September 1994. Also, an 856.5-pound bear was killed by a car near Winnipeg, Canada, in 2001. The largest recorded in Wisconsin was an 802-pounder killed in 1885."

I just went and found this in an article in about two minutes. They are RARE, no doubt, but they do exist!

Easier is a relative term. Here on the K-pen, we have to climb to the alpine. Most of the access is not easy. And if you’re planning on whole harvest, like WH is, then packing it out is not easy either. I enjoy the pursuit of mountain bears immensely, but I wouldn’t plan on harvesting a whole brownie that way.

Baiting allows me to kill meat where I can drive to it; hunt mornings, evenings and weekends whenever I’ve got a couple hours. Seems pretty easy to me. I could use dog food instead of popcorn and make it even easier, just a lot more cash expense.

Maybe I am misunderstanding you WH. Are you talking about a 400# black bear or brown bear ?? Also remember that your buddies that are coming to visit in the fall can't hunt brown bears . I know you know that, but we don't want to even suggest something that is illegal.

WH.
I have spent every year since 1985 hunting/ guiding bear hunters in MN.
I've never heard of an 800# bear taken?
Not saying it hasn't happened but never heard of one.
I've seen a couple that would tickle 600 but that's it.

We thought the post was on Brown Bear Hunting Tips for spring 2019?

Good luck with your bucket list WH

White - 400# pound black bear, here in Homer, are hard to come by. The vast majority of what I see are under 200#. A 250# would be above average! If you really want to get a big one, you have to either get really lucky, or put in a ton of time and work.

About my pals from the lower 48 - I consider them to be my pack mules, of course. They would come all the way up here, just to have an adventure and experience the hunt. But they always buy a non-resident tag of some kind. This fall, I got pals coming for black bear, and caribou too.

I would reciprocate any day. Like, I would go to New Mexico to help them harvest a big bull elk, and butcher and pack the thing out. And I would never hunt. That is the way we are.

You're right, I do know this.

I repeat...

"According to the North American Bear Center in Ely, Minnesota, the heaviest black bear reliably weighed was an 880-pound 10-year-old male killed in Craven County, North Carolina, in November 1998. Not far behind was an 876-pound 12-year-old male from St. Louis County, Minnesota, killed in September 1994. Also, an 856.5-pound bear was killed by a car near Winnipeg, Canada, in 2001. The largest recorded in Wisconsin was an 802-pounder killed in 1885."

I just went and found this in an article in about two minutes. They are RARE, no doubt, but they do exist! 876 pounds!!! This is the one I was talking about and for once, my memory served me well.

You are correct sir! We got side-tracked and we digressed!

I'd pay attention to bucks and bears.

Yeah, but who doesn't love stories about 800 pound black bears? They are not at all common (the bears I mean; the stories are common!)

Most 800 pounders are "shot" in bars after a few beers! I doubt there has ever been one that reached that weight in Alaska; they simply stay "in the den" too long instead of stuffing their faces like in the warmer states.

But since the thread has already digressed and followed that bunny trail, here is a picture of an 800+ lb black bear from, of all places, New Jersey. I saw it myself with my own beady brown eyes a few years ago, at a State Check Station while it was on the scale. Who would have guessed that garbage cans full of pizza crusts and dirty diapers would put that kind of weight on a bear?!!!!! Apparently there is more nutrition in those things than in acorns and roots and berries!

Thanks for the support Pete! Len here in Homer has been telling me that I need to meet you. Thanks for posting.

My policy is that I don't engage the trolls and naysayers who thrive on conflict and division and creating alliances, one against the other. I don't let them "suck me in." They can think what they want... believe what they want. It really doesn't matter at all to me if we differ. I don't need to change them. They are likely not going to change me. I say what I mean and I mean what I say and I am 100% confident in it. This is my journal, and I want it to remain positive, and I have a lot of control over if and how that happens by whether I react or respond.

That is a (This word is unacceptable on Trapperman) of a big bear! Geez they can be impressive... I just love em, and really, that is our common ground, isn't it? The super big anomalies are so, so interesting. Hey, it happens with people. Why not bears?

Clarification - sorry, this ain't my journal, but I did ask a question and start the thread!

We can post a few photos of 800# bears if that helps, or we can get back to the matter at hand. What say you all? :-) Either way, it's all good....

Very dramatic. An 8 footer squared would cover sixty-four square feet. A ten footer would be one hundred square feet. I use this for illustration purposes only but it gives folks the idea of how dramatically the size changes on the upper end of the scale.

IMO, brown and grizzly bear are too majestic an animal to be baiting with jelly donuts. Saddens me to see what Alaska has been reduced to.

We had to shoot them at the village dump where they were eating diapers to make it safe to take out the trash.

Good thing I haven't found where people can afford to get enough jelly donuts to use them for bait, I have enough of an eating problem as it is.